Washington Public Sector Labor Negotiations Blog
Trends and Developments Concerning Washington Public Labor Contracts
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
In our last Newsletter, we report on the just-released June CPI numbers. As we indicated, while we had expected a sharp rise, the size of the rise caught us (and most economists) by surprise. The June national and Seattle indices exceeded 6% as did other regional CPI measures.
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
The “All-Cities” index is published monthly and the “Seattle” and other regional indices are published every other month but of all those reports, it is the “June” numbers that are the most watched for their potential impact on contract negotiations. While some CBAs look towards the inflation report for different months, the vast majority of contracts that specifically apply CPI use the June numbers because they come out in mid-July about the time most negotiations are launching.
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
Spring Blip. For some time, we had been predicting a bump in the upcoming Spring CPI numbers. As the April and May numbers materialized, that prediction proved accurate. The question now is what lies ahead.
